Paul Arst was born in Memphis, Tennessee in February, 1921, but grew up in Drew, Mississippi. There were not many hospitals in that part of the country, so his mother had to travel to Memphis to give birth. His father owned a store. Arst grew up with a brother and a sister. Arst did not want to go into the service. He attended LSU [Annotator's Note: Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana], where it was mandatory for male students to complete two years of ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps]. He ended up doing four years, earning a commission as a lieutenant. Arst graduated with a degree in commerce. After he graduated from college in 1942, Arst was put into the infantry. He did basic training at Camp Robertson, Arkansas. Arst was in a fraternity house when he heard about the attack at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. His brother was at the base during the attack and survived. He had been stationed there in the Navy. His brother volunteered for the Navy prior to the war and had requested an assignment at Pearl Harbor. He served on shore, not on a ship. Arst was worried about his brother, but eventually got word that he was okay. He believes he was lucky not to lose anyone in the war.

Paul Arst was sent to Camp Robinson, Arkansas, for basic training. While there, he did his weapons training on machine guns, rifles, and pistols. After that, he was sent around the country to train troops. He was eventually put in the 42nd Infantry Division. He was then given orders to be transferred to the 30th Infantry Division as a replacement officer. He boarded his ship at Fort Dix, New Jersey, bound for Europe. The trip was nice, because he went over on the Il de France. He stayed in a state room with other officers. He bumped into a friend of his on the ship, and they ended up going to the same division. After arriving in Scotland, he was sent south to England where he trained supply troops and cooks as infantry. In December 1944, he found out he was in the same division as a college friend. His division was pulled back to help during the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Arst joined the 30th Infantry Division as a replacement officer. Two weeks after arriving, the division was pulled out of the recreation area and sent to Belgium. He did not want to see combat, but he did what he was told to do. He served in Company G, 2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division. When he arrived, the G.I.s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] he commanded told him about being awarded the Presidential Unit Citation at Mortain, France. His sergeant was very good, and Arst always followed his advice.

Paul Arst joined his unit [Annotator's Note: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 120th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division] right after they crossed the Roer River while they were resting. That was around Thanksgiving 1944. On 17 December 1944, Arst received orders to get into a truck for a new assignment. When he got into the new area, his unit was designated to guard the division headquarters. He dug a foxhole in the snow. He had not seen a German since arriving in Europe. Arst and a squad were ordered one town over to spy on the Germans, however the mission was called off before he could leave. He remained there for a week. On 23 December, trucks were brought in to move Arst's company to the 117th Infantry Regiment. The following day, he was then told his unit would be assaulting a German position. He saw the bodies of dead civilians around the town near the German position. During the attack, Arst experienced his first experience under fire. As he arrived in a nearby forest, Arst was shot in the shoulder. He waited for a medic, but one never came. He ordered his men to cover him as he crawled back to friendly lines. Arst crawled to the medic and received treatment. Arst asked why the medic never came down and was told he could not get down to his position because of the rate of fire. After receiving care, Arst found out he was the only officer around. He made it to a nearby house and found civilians and soldiers. There was a German tank down a nearby road shooting into the American's position. Arst called in some heavy weapons, but was denied. That night, the heavy weapons arrived and the Americans were able to evacuate the wounded and retreat from the area. The civilians hiding in the house were injured. The division had a reunion in Belgium 50 years after the battle and Arst decided to join. He was brought back to the farm house by a local. They picked up a woman on the way. Arst told them about the house being a refuge for him during the battle. The woman he picked up told him that she was three years old when she was brought to the house after being wounded and that Arst saved her life that day. The woman acted as a guide for them on that trip. They remained in contact when he returned to the United States. The woman had brought her daughter with her and when she heard the story, she started crying, causing everyone in the car to cry. Arst did not return to the place he was wounded.

Paul Arst belonged to a rotary club in Baton Rouge [Annotator's Note: Baton Rouge, Louisiana]. One year, the club did a program about where people were on Christmas Day 50 years prior. Arst told the club he was on a train to a hospital in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] on Christmas 1944. He remained in Paris for about three weeks before being sent to England. He recovered there for roughly five weeks. After that, he received orders to return to the front. Arst felt lucky to be okay and to be able to rejoin his unit [Annotator's Note: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 120th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division]. His company commander offered him his old platoon or the weapons platoon. Arst chose the weapons platoon. The unit used machine guns and mortars. He was happy to stay back behind the front lines. He carried a .45 [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol] and a carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine]. When he arrived at his unit, it was practicing to cross the Rhine River [Annotator's Note: Germany]. Arst thought it looked like the Mississippi River [Annotator's Note: large river in the United States that runs from Minnesota through Louisiana]. The 30th Infantry Division was to be the first division in the area to cross the river. From the steeple of a nearby church, Arst could see his objective on the other side of the river. The infantry was to cross the river with engineers under a screen of smoke and artillery. Arst's boat was filled with heavy weapons and personnel. His boat started leaking, forcing the soldiers to bail it out with their helmets. The boat was moving slowly across the river, so Arst looked over and saw boats moving back to the west bank of the river. When he got to the other side, the soldiers jumped out of the boat as it sank. Arst looked around but could not get his bearings. Eventually, he realized his boat did not make it across the river, he was still on the west bank of the river. He came across some soldiers in a foxhole and asked them where the Rhine River was located. It was nighttime, so he could not see. The soldiers did not know where the river was. Eventually, Arst came across some POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] and a pontoon bridge. He caught up with the unit and had to explain to the company commander what happened. Arst received some pamphlets from the 30th Division group he belongs too that had articles about the river crossing. There was another G.I. [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] that had a similar story. Another article described the battle Arst was wounded in.

[Annotator's Note: Paul Arst and the interviewer discuss some of his old comrades and their current whereabouts.] One of his friends had been writing letters to his sister during the war. Arst and this friend were a part of the Army of Occupation in Germany for some time. His friend was well decorated, giving him enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving oevrseas could return home] to go home. The whole division [Annotator's Note: Arst was a platoon commander in Company G, 2nd Battalion, 120th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division], minus one regiment returned home on the Queen Mary [Annotator's Note: RMS Queen Mary]. His friend was made a member of the general's escort because of his war record. The 30th Infantry Division was going to be shipped to Japan, but the war ended while it was in England. Arst was in Piccadilly Circus, in London [Annotator's Note: London, England], when the war ended in Japan. He was on a date when the news came through. Arst was discharged 30 days after returning to the United States. The 30th Division was chosen to be the first division to invade Japan. Arst was happy when he heard that Japan had surrendered. He was happy about the atomic bomb attacks. Arst thinks Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] did the right thing. When he was discharged, Arst returned to Baton Rouge [Annotator's Note: Baton Rouge, Louisiana]. He wound up going back to school, this time at the University of Missouri [Annotator’s Note: in Columbia, Missouri] for journalism. However, he ended up not finishing there. He returned to Baton Rouge and started working. Arst started working in advertising, then life insurance, where he remained until he retired.

Paul Arst adjusted well to civilian life. He met his wife in 1958 while he was attending a meeting in Alabama. A friend of his tried to set them up, but it did not work. They ended up meeting up in a bar and married six weeks later. While Arst was in the 42nd Infantry Division, he would meet up occasionally with a friend in another unit. When Arst was shipped to Georgia, he saw his friend in the mess hall. Arst was stationed somewhere else soon after and ran into his friend again. While Arst was going overseas on the Queen Mary [Annotator’s Note: RMS Queen Mary], he found his friend on the same ship. They ran into each other again in England. They were both pulled out of their units to train troops. He was always happy to see his friend overseas. Another of his friends in the 30th Division had fought in Normandy and received the Presidential Unit Citation. He saw a lot more fighting than Arst.